Times Change
by 200trackrunner
Summary: Time changes all of us, including Phineas Flynn. But something from his past has kept Phineas holding trying to hold on to what he once had. When all seems lost, a friend from his past may just be able to help him. Poll on Profile to vote for sequel seasn
1. Chapter 1

A lone cloud eclipsed the sun on what was otherwise a spotless sky on a warm summer's day in Danville. Unfortunately the perfect weather starkly contrasted Phineas Flynn's inner turmoil for he was alone on the beach. The years following high school were, well tough to say the least. After graduating tied with none other than Ferb for valedictorian, Phineas found that his friends had drifted apart as each went to a college in each of the states that made up the Tri-State Area. Only Phineas stayed in Danville, attending Danville University, the top school in the area. It seemed to be a dream come true. Of course seemed is the key word in the young man's problem. He had originally intended to stay in touch with his friends as they travelled. During the first few months of freshman year he had. He and Isabella video chatted almost every night. Buford made daily visits to Phineas's dorm seeing as he worked an internship in nearby Doofenshmirtz Evil Inc. Baljieet called on weekends and Ferb called from England once a month being the only one to have left the country for his degree.

Yet things changed. No. . . he changed. He became absorbed by his school work despite easily maintaining a 4.0. The lack of challenge made him stir crazy, but he couldn't just build a roller-coaster through the middle of campus! His scholarship explicitly stated as much. The pent up energy found its scapegoat in his friends. He blew up at them sometimes. Buford was the first to go after a crazed Phineas challenged him to a boxing match, and won. Balijeet fled next after hearing of the happening with Buford. Then there was Isabella. She stayed far longer than even Ferb, yet she was somehow the one he felt left too quickly. He vented his energy out on her in the form of rants but snapped anytime she attempted to give any input. Her last web chat was one word. A teary goodbye.

A teary goodbye that sent him into a dreamland every time he thought about it. He swore he felt his heart sink when he heard a "whatcha doin'?" from an innocent little girl. A teary goodbye that made him zone-out when he thought of the mental scar. In fact he was once again in a world of his own.

"Chatter."

"Oh, there you are Perry." Phineas huffed in surprise through the ill attempted smile that only result in a smirk reminiscent of a child with a sour candy's pucker. Sure he was glad that his platypus oddly enough continued to grace Phineas with his presence on a daily basis despite having to live at the Flynn-Fletcher residence but something in his heart was missing. It vanished two and a half years ago, the same day Isabella left. Phineas shook his head, his messy locks still as unkept as they were all those summers ago ruffling as he did, in an attempt to shake her memory from his head. "Atleast I'll never fall far enough for you to abandon me." The monotreme chattered a sympathetic response at these words. "I just wish I knew how you always manage to find me everyday. I mean I'm never in the same spot twice." Perry just glanced up and smiled in response. Stroking Perry's head while watching the Sun's rays dance blissfully off of a glassy calm ocean, Phineas fell asleep.

**Yes I know it's really short. I'm big on reading long piece but I'm short sweet and to the point in writing. BTW this is my first fanfic so R+R if you want. I know it kind of sucked. Next Chapter will be much longer, this one was typed on my iPhone so it looked like it was way more. I'm sure my grammar is terrible, seeing as my lit teacher reminds me of this constantly, so if any would be willing I could really use a beta reader.**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Phineas awoke to find that he was alone on the beach. Alone except for a lone towel to his distant right. He looked to his left before getting up to see only Perry curled up in a ball in a small burrow the platypus must have dug for himself, fur streaked back by the combination of the sea breeze and salt air. Phineas sat up and yawned taking in the surreal atmosphere of the empty beach. He looked to the sky and noticed that the sun was hardly lower than when he fell asleep. He should have been worried by this seeing with such an empty beach yet such pristine weather but he cared not. His thoughts were entirely focused on figuring out the identity of his compatriot. He walked over to the towel and noticed that it was pink. A very familiar shade of pink that made him shudder. _The same shade as Isabella's bow_ he thought longingly. Looking at the sand he noticed small footprints leading to the water. They were too large to be those of a child and too narrow to belong to a man. Before he realized what was going on he began to follow them in a straight line towards their source.

After what seemed to take forever he finally reached waterline. He looked forward to see nobody. He turned around to see Perry beginning to stir in the way a dog does while it dreams, kicking his legs and rolling somewhat. Phineas sighed in defeat and turned around to watch the waves break as they reached the shore when something caught his attention. Or more so someone. She was tall, not quite his height but tall nonetheless , with flowing raven hair. She was wearing a pink two piece bikini, not the kind with a thong strap but one that was tight enough to compliment her hour glass figure and she too was gazing out toward the open sea. The epiphany dawned on Phineas faster than he realized he had had one and he found himself running at her.

"Isabella!" he screamed at the top of his lungs with joy he never fathomed feeling again. Unfortunately his cries fell on deaf ears. He sprinted towards her, not splashing up water oddly enough even though he didn't notice. He wrapped his arms around her and laughed, turning her around to face him. "Oh how I've missed you." Tears built up in his eyes, not tears of sadness but tears of joy.

"Phineas," she said with her voice keeping an out of character even tone with eyes slightly distant, "I wish it were really me you were with."

"What do you mean? I can see you with my eyes. I can feel you in my arms. You're obviously here," confusion filled Phineas's voice making itself apparent in his expressive eyes. "Is something wrong Isabella?"

"You need to find me." With that a breeze kicked off the ocean and the color began to fade from Isabella. Her entire body became nothing but sand that the wind began to carry her off bit by bit until a wave took out what was once her shins and she was no more.

Phineas turned to run back to his towel and was shocked with what he saw upon spotting his towel. Not only had the pink towel been moved so that it was right next to his red and blue one but the was a woman sitting on them both playing with Perry. Phineas stopped himself from running to them and rubbed his eyes as if trying to erase the image before it reached his eyes. It was Isabella, again, but this time she was in her purple one piece bathing suit that she had worn when they were little accompanied by her signature pink bow. Suddenly he was up with them without having to take a step. Perry chattered happily upon noticing his owners arrival and the Isabella looked up at him and smiled. Phineas was about to ask her if this was actually the real her when her eyes went out of focus.

"Isabella? What's wrong with your eyes?" She only responded to his question with a platypus chatter similar to Perry's. He tried to put a hand out to feel her head and see if she was alright when his world was consumed by black abyss. He suddenly felt a weight on his chest and awoke with a jolt he shot up opening his eyes.

He looked around him. The beach was packed once again and Perry was on his lap having fallen of his chest when he had awaken from his dream. There were a few people staring at him as if he had been talking in his sleep and chances are he had knowing of his bad habits. Phineas looked down at Perry and pulled him to his chest while standing. "Well Perry, I think it'd be a good idea to go home before the sun gets to me even more," Phineas said as the embarrassment began to get to him. Perry just stared in response as Phineas put him down and they walked to his car. After walking a few blocks they found his car, a little something he liked to call the Flying Car of the Future Today. Its body was Linda's old car with small wings and turbine engines. Unfortunately flying it wasn't considered "responsible" and he was forced to have to drive it during on the ground during daylight hours and had stay higher than Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated while flying at night. After buckling Perry in, Perry wouldn't let anyone drive if he weren't buckled or being held, he started his journey to his home on Maple Drive to enjoy the rest of his first day of his last summer as an undergraduate student.

"Do you think she'll come back this year?" Phineas asked Perry to get the thoughts off his chest. " I mean I know neither of us actually returned last summer because we each studied abroad but I haven't seen her in so long." Perry just looked at up at Phineas with his typical mindless looking waiting for him to continue. "You know I dreamed of her back there? It was the weirdest thing too, no matter how hard I tried to talk to her she would just vanish. . . Oh look, we're here!"

Parking at the curb Phineas noticed a small car parked in the driveway. It was small and white with a purple stripe down the middle, steering wheel on the right side. It took him a second of thinking but he figured that Ferb must have come back from Oxford for summer as well. He picked Perry up and ran to the backyard half expecting to see Ferb laying under the tree in the backyard. He wasn't. He was, however, talking to Lawrence, standing in the doorway of the automatic doors they had built a few years back so that Perry could let himself in and out as he pleased. After about a minute, Ferb turned around and almost jumped at the sight of Phineas, who himself was surprised at the difference of Ferb's appearance. For one his hair, well that hadn't changed one bit, but he had noticeably bulked up over the year. And he was tall now, approaching but not quite at 6 foot. "Well," Phineas chuckled, "looks like someone spent time trying to woo the ladies." Ferb kept his composure and responded with his trademark thumbs up. With that the two brothers resumed their old spot in the shade and reminisced, or Phineas did anyway. Ferb he's more of a man of action.

**A/N: Like I promised, much longer this time around. ** **Next chapter will probably have much more Isabella's view point since I actually want to develop her side of the story as well. I hope the dream sequence went over well seeing as it takes up a large portion of the chapter. Read and review if you want. And not gonna lie I'm really impressed that last chapter was read over 65 times yesterday. I'm new to publishing stories so I just thought it was cool how many times a story as bad as chapter one was read. I can't imagine how many view Double Crossed gets or Alphabet Soup got when it was being published daily. **


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

To say Isabella had matured would be an understatement. Sure she still wore pink in every outfit, her bow that Phineas had given her specifically, but this did not make her the immature girl with a crush on Phineas. She had become not only the highest ranking girl in her class, third overall due to Phineas and Ferb tying for top of the class and Balijeet not scoring high enough on gym to be in the top three. Her grades alone were enough to get her in to the prestigious Adjacent University, founded by Otto H. Adjacent himself, on a three quarters scholarship. The rest of her college tuition was paid for by her athletic ability. Since getting into middle school it was obvious that Isabella was fast. The only one in the school who could beat her in a 100 meter dash was Phineas himself. Isabella had also become much more independent. She chose to go to Adjacent of Danville University to prove to herself that she would be able to make on her own without Phineas and it. . . mostly worked. The two would talk every night on web-chat but unfortunately all it for her was make her need to be with Phineas. Something neither schedule would allow for. Worst of all, that childhood crush had failed to die. Quite the contrary, it had bloomed into a fully fledged love. The problem was Phineas only provided vague hints that he _may _have felt the same. Her heart couldn't take anymore and she decided to break it off two years back.

Unfortunately it never really worked out. She wasn't happier. She found herself thinking about none other than Phineas Flynn. When other boys asked her out she couldn't say yes, hell she hadn't even had feelings for a boy other than Phineas. This made the annual homecoming dance awkward as she turned down numerous pursuers. Yes, the life of Isabella Garcia-Shapiro was a lonely one without Phineas and that was why she was glad that this year the NCAA Track & Field Championships would be held at Danville University Stadium. Isabella was ecstatic at the prospect of possibly seeing Phineas there this. She had heard that he made it last year and was a favorite to win the 200 meter this year, so the word around the area hyped it up as such. Even more convenient was that fact that term was over and she would be able to Phineas whether or not he had made it. And so with high expectations Isabella packed her bags, loaded them into her green Toyota Corolla and headed out for Danville. For home. For Phineas.

It was a sunny day in Danville when she crossed the state boarder and into the suburbs where she grew up. She arrived home to be greeted by Pinky and Pinky alone, Vivian was still at work. After playing a quick game of fetch with Pinky Isabella changed into a pink tank top and pink Sophie Shorts and drove off to the beach. With or without Phineas, Isabella was still a firm believer in carpe diem. She parked about a block away from the beach across the street from a station wagon with what looked like small wings equipped with turbines attached to the doors. _Weird, _she thought, _if I didn't know any better I would suspect that that was something Phineas and Ferb made when we were 12_. She gave the car not a second and began to jog to the beach. With two days of down time before the meet Isabella figured that she should just do enough to keep herself loose. She couldn't have asked for better weather than she had gotten that day, only one cloud in the sky and it just so happened to pass by the Sun, yet it was thin enough that a sufficient amount of light came through to keep everything bright. Arriving on the beach, Isabella cleared her thoughts and simply let her legs carry her. The jog was mostly uneventful, being only mid-May that water was still too cold for swimmers to bother going in the water leaving her a wide open lane near the water. Five minutes into her jog she thought she noticed a head of auburn hair sitting on the beach talking to a platypus, but she didn't take the time to notice. 10 minutes later she had taken a loop that was now taking her back to the spot where she thought she had seen a familiar head of hair. Of course she hadn't only thought it. No, just 50 feet away from her was Phineas Flynn, now asleep, accompanied by Perry. Unaware that he was asleep, Isabella walked over to her long lost friend.

"Watcha doin'?" she asked, the habit still surviving. Her only answer was a slight snore followed by a nudge at her shin and finally a chatter. She looked down and saw that Perry was greeting her by rubbing up against her leg. "Hey Perry!" She could help but quietly chuckle to herself while avoiding waking up Phineas. "I'm guessing you remember after all these years?"

"Chatter."

"I think I'll take that as a yes."

Isabella squatted down so that her calves touch her hamstrings and began to pet the monotreme. After awhile she began to see that Perry was growing tired so she dug a small bed for him out of the sand. When she finished Perry walked inside of it and curled up bidding Isabella goodbye with one final, sleepy chatter. Seeing that Phineas was still well asleep she jogged bag to the car and began her drive home. "Yes," she cheered upon driving a few blocks from the beach, "he's here." The drive home was exciting, even more so than her drive home from school. Knowing that she finally had the chance to rekindle her friendship with Phineas was more than enough to give her butterflies in her stomach. She almost didn't notice when she was cut off by a driver in a white and purple smartcar who apparently didn't remember that right turns had the right-of-way over left turns. She was about to curse the man driving to hell when she saw the green mop atop his head. "Ferb," she yelled to the car across from her, "if you weren't just getting back from England I would probably want to kill you right about now." Although the words seemed to carry malice to a passerby, Ferb knew they were mostly in jest and responded with a thumbs up. "I see you still as much of a man of action as ever huh?" Again Ferb responded with another thumbs up. After he responded Isabella drove to the Flynn-Fletcher residence and parked down at the curb, allowing Ferb to take the drive with ease.

With both out of their respective cars, Isabella followed Ferb into the backyard. He laid under the tree and stared at her with an expectant look. Ferb knew that she must have either seen Phineas or came to ask if he had. "I saw Phineas and Perry at the beach when I was running," she said, her face lighting up like she was a five year old on Christmas morning. "Have you seen them yet?' Ferb just shook his head in response. Ferb still gave her a quizzical look knowing there had to be more to why she came here. After five minutes of awkward silence Isabella spoke up again, "would you be surprised if I were to tell you that I still like him?" And with that she turned to leave.

"I guess the old adage is true 'if you love something let it go, if it comes back it's yours forever. If it runs away it was never meant to be'" Ferb laughed, English accent thick in his words. He knew full well that Phineas felt just as strongly for Isabella as she did for him. Of course, the obstacle here is that neither of them realized this themselves.

"Could you repeat that? I was too in shock to hear you say so much that at one time."

Ferb just shrugged his shoulders for his answer. Seeing that her mom's car had just gone down the street, Isabella hopped the fence, got in her car and drove home. Leaving just in time to miss the Flying Car of the Future Today pull up to the spot she just vacated.

**With that I conclude today's chapters. Hopefully the quality is good and the grammar has minimal mistakes. It's still my weakness and I'm looking for a beta. . . now I just need to figure out how to submit a story for beta reading. **


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Isabella parked in the driveway next to her mom's car and walked to the house, blissfully unaware of Phineas occupying her rearview mirror for a full second before she drove down the street to get to house. Fortunately for her, Phineas was unaware of it too. Isabella opened the heavy oak door to be greeted by Pinky, who upon smelling a certain furry flatfoot's sent on her issued a quick growl. _I wonder what's with him_, she thought ignorant of the fact the Pinky's jealousy of Perry's status as top performing agent in the OWCA, beating Pinky out by over twenty ranks. Hoping her mom hadn't heard the sound of the door or Pinky, Isabella took off her shoes and crept quietly over towards the kitchen, stealthily trying to surprise Vivian with her presence. Luckily her mom had her back to Isabella and not handling anything sharp or dangerous that could be a threat to her safety if all worked out. With less than a foot of space between her and her mother, she put her head just high enough above her mom and whispered, "Watcha' doin'?" At this her mom turned around after jumping almost an entire foot in the air.

"Isabella! I didn't even hear you pull up! How was the ride? Has the food been good since Christmas? I haven't seen you in months, my how you've grown!" Vivian shrieked, jumping up and down and finally hugging her daughter.

"Sheesh Mom. If you keep squeezing me this hard you'll break my back and I doubt the coaches would be to found of that," Isabella managed to force out from her mother's tight grip.

"Forgive me, Isabella, it just feels like it's been so long." Vivian released her daughter from her clutches to see her exaggerate how hard the hug was by mockingly falling to her knees and pretending to pant. Vivian smiled looking down out Isabella as she helped herself up noticing the uncanny similarity they shared in appearance. They both stood tall for women at around five foot eight and shared the same raven hair and head shape. Isabella, however had her beat in the looks department by leaps and bound. Where Vivian had frizzy and curly hair, Isabella's was starting to lay straight naturally after years of being combed that way and possessed a sheen that Vivian's could only dream to attain. Isabella also had remained thin while inheriting the Garcia family hourglass figurer giving her the body of a model. She couldn't help but feel bad for her daughter, saving the figure for the man who sees everything but love. But on the positive end of the spectrum, she was the envy of her peers.

"I know mom," Isabella responded up getting up. "No need to remind me."

"Now I need you to get to leave kitchen. With this being your first day back I feel the need to make something worth celebrating over," Mrs. Garcia-Shapiro said as she forced her only child into the other room.

Standing alone in the foyer, Isabella took the stairs to her room and started to unpack. She started with her basic method of dividing up her clothes, winter and summer clothes. She further divided these categories into athletic and non athletic and the non athletic into formal and informal and everything was further put into drawers of only that color. Sure her roommate said that she was overly specific when it came to sorting her clothes, but she never had to wonder where an article of clothing was. Most of the packing went by uneventfully, sure Pinky stole a shoe, a shirt or a bra every now and again but nothing more than that. Until she reached a pocket in the last suitcase that she hadn't realized was there in years. After putting all the clothes in the case away, she decided to undo the button holding the pocket closed, sending a small piece of picture paper floating down to the bottom of the bag like a feather in the wind. The photo had landed picture side down so she picked it up to see what the picture was of. It was a picture of her and Phineas at the state fair. The two were on the Tilt-a-Whirl and Phineas had his arm around her, drawing her close, and his eyes closed as he laughed. He still wore and orange and white shirt but it had become a polo and he replaced the blue shorts with tan ones. She was wearing a pink dress similar to the one that she had worn when they were 12 but without the white shirt underneath, it being replaced by a white tank top, and a red blush across her face. It had been taken the summer after graduating high school. The summer when she had intended on revealing her feelings to the man in the picture. "Oh Phineas, if only you would have realized then, maybe things would be different now." A lone tear escaped her eye she continued to stare at the photo accompanied by a smile on her lips. "Phineas, I know what I'm going to do this summer." With that she looked opened her window and stuck her head out in the direction of the Flynn-Fletcher home. She wasn't sure but she thought she could see the vague shape of a triangle headed, auburn haired boy looking back at her.

. . .

With his head propped up from behind by the tree as hands acted as a pillow, Phineas lazily stared into the leaves of the trees as he partially enjoyed the calm and was partially driven crazy by the silence. It wasn't that he minded Ferb's lack of words, how could you dislike the laconic demeanor, but more so there was something to Phineas needed to get off his chest. That something was the dream he had at the beach.

"You ever have a dream about someone, and couldn't figure out why?" Phineas asked without expecting an answer. Never the man to disappoint, Ferb acknowledged the questions just by looking at him and raising an eyebrow. "Yep I figured that'd be my answer. I just did and it was the strangest thing. Every time I approached. . . this friend of ours, they'd disappear! Hey what's so funny," he finished as he saw Ferb crack a noticeable smile. Ferb responded by shrugging his shoulders. "What do you think it means?"

Silence.

"You're right Ferb it was just a dream. The world doesn't exactly run on Freudian principals anyway so it probably meant nothing. Just my brain processing information during REM sleep." Ferb rolled his eyes at the comment. Unlike Phineas, Ferb knew all too well that it was Phineas's way of dealing with things. "So have you seen any of our old friends?" Ferb gave a thumbs up. "Really who was it?" Ferb pointed in the direction of the Garcia-Shapiro residence. "You saw Isabella!" Again, Ferb merely gave a thumbs up in response. "I...IIII've gotta go Ferb. Talk to you later!" With that Phineas ran into the house leaving Ferb alone in the yard, giving him plenty of time to think.

_Young love it such a finicky woman is she not? _Ferb thought to himself. _And boy how the times have changed. First it was Isabella struggling to get Phineas to notice her feelings towards him. Then it was Phineas struggling to understand how he felt towards Isabella ever since that forty hour trip around the world. And now it's two oblivious people who can't realize that the feelings are reciprocated_. With this thought, Ferb let out an audible chuckle. Luckily nobody was in the yard to hear it, otherwise that would have been two occasions where he spoke out loud to others, and that would be out of character.

After running into the house Phineas sped past Lawrence, who was watching a gladiator film, and into his room. He honestly had no idea why he ran away from Ferb. Maybe it was the need to be alone after hearing about her. Maybe he was afraid that he would end up telling Ferb that he had been hurting ever since Isabella stopped talking to him. Maybe he was afraid of what Ferb would have to say on the matter. Even though he and Isabella had been best friends forever she still had this odd power over him that he could never explain. Whenever he was around her he only wanted to make her smile. No. Not just smile but smile **because of him**. It may have seemed arrogant or selfish, maybe a combination of the two, but it was true. At first he thought it was because she was his best friend, but he never had that feeling with Ferb, Balijeet, or Buford so he ruled that one out. His next guess was because she was a girl. That theory didn't hold up well either because he never felt that way with any of the other Fireside Girls or any other girl for that matter. No, Isabella was a puzzling situation. He noticed that she always took every opportunity to be near him that she could. He never quite figured that one out either. When he was younger he thought it was a girl thing but he never thought anything of it, until he started doing the same thing with her. He wasn't sure when that started: possibly during that whole plane ride around the world, could've been high school. He still wasn't sure.

Time seemed to stand still for awhile while Phineas was thinking. He hadn't even noticed the fact that he had made the trip from the doorway to his bed. He looked around the room and took note of how different it had become over the years. For starters his and Ferb's old beds had been replaced by basic maple wood box frame with drawers built in and shelved headboards. The carpeting had been replaced with fake oak flooring, it still looked good but it wouldn't get scratched. The walls had been painted a dark blue with a gold accent wall from when the boys had undergone they're Notre Dame phase, Phineas himself was still a fan of the football team since DU didn't have a team and Ferb started to cheer for Michigan just to spark up some sibling rivalry. Perry's bed was situated between the two of theirs, right in front of a black night stand with a natural sunlight emitting lamp that Ferb and he had invented when they were in eighth grade. He laughed when he remembered that they entered it in a science fair and it lost to a baking soda volcano. Unfortunately it made him think back to how it had been Isabella who won with that same invention which made him think about his feelings again. Before he could become lost in this thoughts for too long, he heard the sound of a small feet creeping in to the room followed by the sound of something pushing hard off the ground. Before Phineas could figure out what had happened something blueberry landed on his chest making a happy chatter on impact.

"Well Perry, I'd rate that landing a ten out of ten. And I think I know what I'm going to do tomorrow."

"Chatter."

"Yep. We're going to pay Isabella and Pinky a visit tomorrow."

"Chatter," this time Perry was noticeably annoyed. That wasn't what he meant by the chatter at all. Luckily Phineas picked up on this.

"Oh yeah, I forgot that you and Pinky don't get along, or at least he doesn't get along with you," he quickly added noticing the platypus was still annoyed. With this Perry was satisfied, hopped off of his owner and curled up in his checkerboard patterned bed.

With Perry off his chest Phineas walked over to the window, opened it and stuck his head out looking in the direction of Isabella's house. Little did he know that if he had been looking closely enough, he would have seen Isabella doing the same thing.

**Bam! There you go thehighlordofterra, my longest chapter yet. For those getting annoyed that everything seems to repeat I have to say I agree. I like the concept and all but it's actually really tedious to have to go back to previous chapters and what not but I have to say I like the results. Thanks for reading, reviews are appreciated but not expected at all.**

** -Kingfisher**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Phineas Flynn's world was nothing but black as far as they eye could, or couldn't, see. Not a sound broke through a deafening silence. Not a sound until a much loathed, shrill, and, worst of all, repeating beep that was the sound of the alarm clock. Raising his hands to his eyes, Phineas rubbed the remnants of sleep away and turned to his left to see Ferb beginning to raise his arm to punch the alarm clock, exacting his revenge for its lack of mercy for those with jetlag. Quickly Phineas grabbed his brothers hand in right hand and tapping the off button with his left index finger to both save the machine and Ferb from the results of the impact. Feeling Ferb's muscles relax to the level indicating a return to sleep within a second of being caught, Phineas placed Ferb's hand back at his side and proceeded to get dressed. Knowing that the big meet was just a day away, Phineas dawned a pair of black Under Armour stretchy shorts, a black, sleeveless Under Armour compression shirt and Nike running shoes preparing for a light workout that his coach would be emailing him in the next twenty minutes. Once dressed, Phineas clapped his hands to activate and watched as his sheets began to fix themselves into a properly made position. Even though he and Ferb had woven the nanobots responsible for this action into all the sheets and blankets they owned back in the ninth grade he never tired of seeing his creation at work. Seeing Perry begin to wake up at his feet, Phineas walked out of the room and down to the kitchen to begin breakfast.

"Phineas, my boy, I didn't see you yesterday! Too busy to say hello to your own dad now are we?" Lawrence greeted him upon entering the kitchen, feigning heartbreak in his voice. "Nervous for your big day?" he added at the end fully aware of the fact that Phineas had most likely been preparing for the upcoming race.

"Sorry Dad," Phineas said with true guilt in his voice. "I had a lot on my mind before running into my room yesterday and didn't stop to talk because I didn't want to interrupt your movie. I guess I fell asleep pretty early. Maybe the Sun drained me more than I thought it had."

"It's quite alright. I know your busy, I wouldn't be surprised if that phone of yours went off in a couple of seconds giving you your workout." Oddly enough, Phineas's phone indeed went off as Lawrence finished his sentence. "Look at that it's right on queue."

Phineas unlocked his phone and pushed the email button, opening up the newest email. _Phineas_, it read,_ seeing as you have up to 5 races tomorrow I want you to keep it light today. 1000 meters worth of striders with a mile warm-up, mile cool down, 5 starts, and light explosion drills. Team will be meeting at 4:15 at the stadium. -Coach Monogram. _Phineas smiled at this workout. He'd be done within an hour and he'd be free to work on his newest Big Idea. Better yet why didn't he see if Isabella would be interested in joining him? Not only would it make the time pass by faster, but he'd be able to get to know Isabella better. Maybe it'd even help him with his plan. "Hehe," Phineas chuckled realizing the timing, "talk about your coincidences. Well I'm going to head out and start I'll see you later this afternoon." And with that he grabbed an apple from the fruit basket on the black, granite countertop and headed out the door, grabbing his gym bag off the coat rack on the way out.

Across the street, Isabella was beginning to get up at around the same time as Phineas. She rolled out from underneath the purple covers that consumed her and yawned as she went to her feet. She went into her athletic drawers for a pair of black shorts with a white stripe going down the middle that reached roughly half way down her thigh a white tank top with a pink strip going through at breast level and a pink sports bra. She was in the midst filling a gym bag with her water bottles and something light to eat for after the work out when something caught her eye. A red haired man, roughly her age , was wresting to get his head out of hoodie while walking in the direction of her house. _Phineas? _She thought as she shoved her water bottles into her bag with much haste and ran over to the window. "You look like you could use some help down there," Isabella yelled down to the young man, now struggling to put on a pair of slightly tight fitting, grey Nike sweats. They weren't form fitting like the shirt Phineas was wearing under his hoodie, but they were just tight enough that they wouldn't hinder his running. Unfortunately it was this tightness that caused Phineas to fall face first onto the lawn of Isabella's neighbors as he struggled to put them on while walking.

"Nope," Phineas responded as an embarrassed blush crept its way upon his face. "And to think I thought nobody saw that, too."

"Well," Isabella managed to reply through a fit of laughter, "if you wait a minute I'd be more than happy to assist you." With that she disappeared into her bedroom only to appear silhouetted behind the grass of her door before emerging on the front lawn. She walked over to Phineas, who was now beginning to brush himself free of grass and early morning dew. Oddly enough when he looked up from his endeavor he was speechless, much to the contrary of what either had expected from him. No, Phineas was staring at Isabella, almost choking on his own lack of words. "Two years since you last see me and you don't even have anything to say?" Isabella finally broke the silence.

"I'm sorry, but you know if you could see you right now you'd be at a loss for words yourself." Phineas defended, not noticing the blush the flashed on and off of the girl's face. "Now then, are you busy at the moment? Cause if not I could really use some company for an hour or two."

"Boy, you really stick with that early start don't you? But I'd be glad to accompany you."

"Of course! What good is carpe diem if you miss a significant portion of daylight?"

"What did you have in mind?"

"Just warm ups for tomorrow's races if you don't mind. I mean I think I heard that you're in the meet too so I figured, ya know, maybe you'd wouldn't mind joining me." Seeing a look of disappointment, one below the threshold of anyone else's perception when it came to Isabella, cross her face Phineas quickly added, "Sorry for not knowing for sure. I don't look at the results or seeding for any races so that I don't psyche myself out or get too big of an ego." Instantly he noticed that her expression improved.

"Understandable," Isabella attempted to cover, "my coaches have us do the same thing." It was true enough, but she always found an excuse to see if Phineas had run in any meets that week to somewhat maintain the connection that had been lost between them. Noticing that Phineas was walking her in the direction of his car Isabella stopped him, realizing what they would have to take. "Um, Phineas? Is it alright if we take my car instead? Seeing as we're already at my house it just makes sense."

"Sure. I need to build a new frame for my car anyway. Hell, I might as well replace the whole thing seeing as it's old and currently not air legal. And I'm starting to doubt it's street legalness as well."  
Phineas admitted with a shrug. The two turned around and took Isabella's car to their old high school, Danville High School.

Strangely enough, neither person seemed to want to talk all that much once getting inside the car. Isabella couldn't figure out why Phineas had stopped talking, and so she didn't want to bring attention to it. Phineas, however wasn't exactly ignoring the girl sitting in the driver's seat. His thoughts were consumed by her and trying to figure out what had made him freeze up like that earlier. She has been his best friend since he could remember and he had practically gawked at her. Nope. Scratch the practically, he had definitely gawked at her. For some reason his heart was pounding faster than usual but he just attributed it to pre-race nerves finally starting to kick in. _Weird, _he thought to himself, _why did I feel this way after I had the dream about Isabella. And why did I feel this way when Ferb told me that Isabella had come home too._ Phineas had almost lost himself in thought once again until Isabella hit the brakes decently hard as they reached the intersection near the Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated building. Slightly dazed due to being knocked out of his thoughts Phineas stared at Isabella with a confused look. "What's wrong?" He asked her.

"Well, I'm not sure but I think I just saw what looked like Perry running across the street on his hind legs, wearing a fedora," Isabella answered in a confused voice. The two laughed at how preposterous the idea of a secret agent platypus was and continued laughing for the remainder of the car ride, cracking the occasional joke and saying how funny it would be if he were fighting that pharmacists from the videogame from when they were little. Before they knew it, they had arrived at the parking lot for Danville High School Stadium. Although school was still in session for another few weeks, Isabella and Phineas were able to get into the complex because it was located off of the academic campus. Once inside the two of them began to jog a mile, sticking with Phineas's workout schedule since it fit Isabella's purposes as well. Not wanting to waist energy, they kept quite through the warm up. Once done the mile, Phineas took off his sweats, revealing what had kept hidden underneath. This time it was Isabella's turn to do be dumbstruck. Although she had seen him at the beach just the day before she hadn't really taken a proper look at him. Although Phineas was technically completely covered his shirt did not leave much up to guessing. He had become far more toned than he had been back in high school and even more than she had been able to notice over the web chats. His shirt bulged at the chest over a well developed chest and revealed well sculpted abs. No, he wasn't as built like a football player anymore, he lost the mass after graduating high school, but he was much more built than he was back then. He was built like an athlete competing at the highest level should be: muscular, stream lined and evenly, not favoring a particular region over any others.

"Something wrong, Isabella?" Phineas asked, breaking the silence.

"Nope. I guess your coaches must work you hard, huh?"

"Yea. . . wait why do you ask?"

"Cause it shows," Isabella replied with a seductive look crossing her face. She hoped he hadn't noticed as she quickly put her calm expression back on and she walked back to the track preparing for her first lap of striders.

"Yea, they've helped bring my times down a lot this season cause of this new workout plan," Phineas said with a smile, genuinely missing what she had really meant, while jogging to catch up with her. This suited Isabella just fine, for now anyway.

The two had finished the work out in about two hours of relative silence. The only sounds being their breath as it escaped from their lungs with excessive force compared to the average walking breath. "It's only two thirty," Phineas stated as they left the stadium and started towards the car, "wanna spend some time at the beach?"

"Sure. We just can't stay too long since you've got a meeting to attend in a little under two hours."

"AWESOME," he yelled in excitement. And with that the two went to the beach, and enjoyed the company as they talked for a little over an hour and a half talking about whatever came to mind. Never could they have been more excited to have rekindled their old friendship.

**Another chapter done. Now the meet will take center stage in the next chapter, no more devoting multiple chapters to a single day. Might make this story about 10 chapters and look forward to Phineas and Ferb beginning to work on Big Ideas again. So hope you enjoyed, reviews are appreciated but not expected. I'll try to take any advice given to me by the reviewers. **


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

It was time. After spending a day with Isabella it was finally the day of the biggest meet of his life, NCAA DI National Championships. He was running as the favorite for the 200 meter and a qualifier for the 100 meter dash. Alone in the locker room below Danville University Stadium, Phineas began to mentally prepare in the dark. His thoughts were no longer on anything other than his first event, the first round of the 100 meter. The adrenaline was beginning to course through his veins, increasing the explosive potential of his muscles as he stretched out one last time before heading up to the check in and holding area. Taking long and deep breathes calmed his nervous. Hearing the sound of the intercom buzzing in out over the sound of the crowd, Phineas began the walk to the track, only twenty minutes before he would hit the track. Much to his surprise Major Monogram was outside waiting for him. Phineas didn't say a word and merely smiled in acknowledgement. "Shouldn't you be checking up on the four by one coach? They haven't come to the locker room yet so you might wanna make sure they know what time it is," Phineas asked, expressing his shock.

"They're outside the stadium keeping their legs warm." Major Monogram hadn't aged much in the eight years since Phineas was in sixth grade. Of course Phineas wasn't aware of what the Major looked like in the past, he wasn't aware that he even existed back then. He still had his mustache and military cut what hair, the small amount of wrinkles was the only give away that time had continued to flow for the old man, and current OWCA division leader. "Just do what you always do, it's just a race and you're only a sophomore so there's really no pressure on you."

Knowing that this was as close to a 'good luck' as he would ever get from his coach, Monogram knew that he was good enough that luck wasn't ever really a factor in the situation, Phineas smiled and nodded as the adrenaline began to pump into overdrive leaving incapable to talk coherently. The sound of the crowd began to reach his ears as he walked down the marble floored hall, the doors to the locker room behind the only doors around other than the one the light of day flooded out of that was the entry to the field. Making sure his spikes were in his gym back one last time, satisfied upon seeing the blue and white Nike's with their three sixteenths of an inch long spikes, Phineas began the slow journey to the competition area. When crossing through the double doors out of the stadium he turned to his right and walked to a small tent that was clearly for checking in participants, beneath it stood a table with a man with red hair and glasses working the computer that held the contestants' names. The man was named Carl Karl, a former assistant coach at DU and friend of Coach Monogram's. "Name?" The man behind the table inquired of Phineas.

"Flynn, Phineas."

"Ok Phineas I need to see your number before telling you lane and heat numbers." With that Phineas took off his warm up shirt revealing the uniform with number stuck on the front. "Thank you. You'll be heat five, land five." Phineas thanked Carl and continued walking to the area where other athletes were beginning to gather.

Phineas grabbed his right ankle and pulled so that his heel was slightly above his glute and he stared out at the track seeing if he could recognize any of the people currently on the track. Lined up in land one, preparing to start the 100 meter was Isabella. She was in one of the outer lanes, not the greatest spot for seeding but the field was even, less than a tenth of a second separated first and last place. The girls were already in the set positions, butts slightly higher than the backs of their heads, eyes looking three meters ahead. All were ready for the sound of the gun that rang through the air acting as the catalyst for the race that ensued. Isabella had an early lead out of the blocks, her longer than average legs propelling her ahead. Twenty meters in she had lost her lead, now tied for first with the Big Ten champion from Penn State. The pack stayed this way until they reached sixty meters, Isabella and a girl from LSU took a five meter lead on the rest of the pack, Isabella just barely in second place and fighting for first. Unfortunately that's as close as she would get as the race ended in that exact spot. Despite her best effort, Isabella's season would end with a second place finish in the preliminary round of the 100 meter dash and her personal best time. Phineas could see the mixture of pride and disappointment on her face but she had nothing to be disappointed about, the girl she lost to had run the best time in the nation that season, the odds were against her and she put up a better fight than anyone would have ever expected. As the girls left the track, the official called the men's group to explain that there would be five heats and the winners of each heat plus the next four best times would move on to tomorrow's final round. _Good, Isabella still has a chance to advance to the final_.

Phineas kept his feet moving in the time before his race, never allowing his muscles to go cold. Finally, the fifth heat was called. Phineas stripped down to his one piece black and white spandex uniform with a white DU logo on the front and reported to the track. Taking a few bounces before entering the blocks for a practice start his mind was cleared of all thoughts. All of his senses focused on achieving the perfect, on his coach's advice the gun was the last thing on his mind. The official raised the first guan and gave the call, "runners on your marks." Standing at the starting line, Phineas took two bounces and shook out his legs, lowered his upper body and put his left foot, his drive leg, to its block followed by his right. The adrenaline's effects had gone below his absolute threshold. Nothing could psyche him out at this point. "Set," the official announced raising his second gun. Phineas's body rose to the point where his rear was slightly above the back of his triangular head. **Bang!** The tension in his left leg released in an explosion. His right foot land more than a foot beyond the starting line and his body was still low to the ground. The perfect start. Thirty meters into the race and his body was finished it's acceleration and he was standing straight up, his form remaining perfect. He was in second and exactly where he wanted to be. Sixty meters and he was still in second, all he needed to do was maintain his top speed longer than the man next to him. At Eighty meters, it happened. The field began to fall behind as they entered their deceleration phase a full five meters before him, he had sealed his victory. Leaning over the finish line he secured the best time he could have possibly gotten . After coming to a stop he walked back to the starting line with a boyish grin on his face. He looked around the stadium, which was an almost perfect copy of U Penn's Franklin Field and saw Lawrence, Ferb and Major Monogram giving congratulatory smiles. Turning to the official he read the time on the watch, 10.45 seconds.

A few hours later, Phineas went to the results board. He was the highest seed in the 200 meter with a time of 20.27 seconds, a personal best, and seeded sixth in the 100 meter. Luckily there were no semifinals and Monogram had taken him out of the four by one to focus on his solo events. They had done well and would be running the next day. Isabella on the other hand, was not. She had missed finals by seven places despite a valiant performance. Although incapable of taking away the pride of in his achievement for making it to the finals, he was definitely upset that there was no chance of him seeing Isabella run tomorrow. He began his walk out of the stadium, Monogram had ordered him to go home and relax to keep his body out of the sun and avoid the risk of overexposure to the energy draining sun, half looking forward to the next day and half upset that he couldn't share is joy with Isabella. He reached his car and was about to open the door when a small pair of hands covered his eyes.

"Guess who?" The culprit said in a very familiar, very feminine voice.

"I don't know. Ferb?"

"Funny," the voice mocked offense. Suddenly Phineas's eyes were flooded with the light of day and he felt himself being spun around by force. Stopped after doing a complete one hundred eighty degree turn. He found himself looking into the eyes of none other than Isabella. "Watcha' doin'?"

Phineas found himself blushing and at a loss for words. Sure she was wearing her team sweats and no makeup, but something about the way she looked made his stomach flip and painted a blush across his cheeks. After about thirty seconds of silence he answered, "going home."

"Why, don't you wanna watch the last race?"

"I can't Monogram wants me to go home early so that I can rest for tomorrow. . . Did you hear something?" He had thought he heard the sound of a miniature parachute rustling as it hit the ground. He and Isabella looked around for the source of the sound but found nothing. "Huh, that was weird..."

"Chatter."

"Oh, there you are Perry," Phineas said in confusion. "How did you get here?" Perry just hopped on the hood of the car in response. "No I'm pretty sure you didn't drive here," Phineas said with a slight chuckle. Isabella laughed at this too. "So are you staying for the last race, Isabella?"

"Not if you're not. I would rather go just get my mind off of today's race," she tried to keep her face as optimistic as she could but her voice betrayed her words.

"Ok, well I'm then do you need a ride home?"

"Nope. My car's here and plus you have to go home and get ready for tomorrow."

"Oh. Ok then I'll see you around then." Phineas had tried to hide the disappointment but his eyes betrayed him. It was the unfortunate side effect of having such expressive eyes. With that he grabbed Perry off the hood of his car, buckled him in and drove off.

Isabella stood there watching him drive off, the run beginning to lower and become a shade of orange. It was 7:30 and there was probably about forty-five minutes left until sunset. She started walking to her car on the other side of the parking lot. Once inside she drove a little ways out of Danville to a cliff that over looked the city. Since it had taken her around twenty minutes to get there the Sun was now beginning to be eclipsed by the D.E.I. building. She stopped and watched the sunset alone at the place Phineas had shown her, a place where he often went to clear his thoughts when they were in high school. _You really blew it this time didn't you Isabella_, she criticized herself. _But what was up with him back there? Why did he not talk to you as much as he normally does? Maybe he doesn't like me anymore. But what about that blush? Could he... No! This is Phineas after all he's not into you in that way._

"Why do I always find a way to mess these things up?" Phineas asked Perry on his way home. "You think it's because she's just not that into me?" Perry just stared at his owner. Obviously he was the only one unaware of how she felt about him. It was kind of sad seeing as a monotreme was able to detect the feelings of endearment before a boy who had built a rollercoaster at age ten. Sure he was no ordinary flat foot but still. The surprising thing to him was that Isabella hadn't been able to tell that he felt just as strongly about her as she for him. Perry just rolled his eyes and let it go. Even if they were made perfectly for each other it could just not be in the cards. No, on second thought that he was wrong. Despite the obliviousness fate always had its way of getting things to go as planned.

**A/N: The next chapter will not discuss the second day of the meet as anything more than an afterthought. I love track but writing about it and putting you readers through this just isn't fair to either side. BUT this chapter is important cause the meet will be reference and have an impact on up coming chapters.**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Danville was relatively quite this sunrise. No noise by the D.E.I. Building, Danville University's stadium was emptied and cleaned out at the conclusion of the NCAA Championships the day before. Not a sound broke the calm, not even at the Flynn-Fletcher residence. It was as the sun's rays broke over the house that Phineas had to cover his eyes, momentarily putting a halt to his hammering, as they bounced off the metal structure before him. He was the only one awake in the neighborhood, which suited Phineas just fine for now, he didn't need to attract a massive amount of attention drawn to himself and it would keep him from being able to study his blueprints properly. Sprawled out on the grass to his left, weighed down by stones on each corner, laid blue prints for the old Sun-Beater 3000 with a few scribbles and edits too design flaws that made themselves evident the first time around. For starters, Phineas added a stronger engine capable of higher maximum speed and able to carry a heavier payload. The addition of altitude sensors that deployed the landing wheels made up for some the chance of human error occurring. The wings now folded in to avoid contact with objects, in case they ventured too near a mountain top. A floatation device was added around the perimeter of the plane as a last resort protocol.

Safety wasn't the only aspect Phineas had in mind when making changes to the plane. Instead of running off vegetable oil to be more eco friendly, the tail of the plane now featured commercial grade solar panels, bypassing the need to spend money and time refueling. Of course, the most noticeable difference was the number of seats. While the original Sun-Beater was a six seater, the new model sat three with an option for the last seat to turn into a bench if need be. Phineas figured that he would shock Ferb by taking him and Vanessa or the girl of his choice to Paris to make up for what happened on the last trip. Of course Phineas wouldn't treat Ferb to a date, after all this hard work, without getting some personal benefit in return. No, Phineas had plenty to gain out of this trip, a chance to explore the feelings that tormented his heart for the last few week and of course there was no better place to explore problems the heart than the City of Love.

Phineas heard his alarm clock go off through the open window above followed by the sound of Ferb getting out of bed. If Ferb hadn't let his feet hit the ground so hard when waking up no one would be able to tell that anything was going on in the room. Looking up, Phineas noticed Ferb sticking his head out of the window, looking down on him. "Hey Ferb," Phineas yelled up, "want to help me hook this motor up? I think you'll enjoy knowing what we're gonna do today!" Ferb just answered by blinking and appearing at the back door less than a minute later. "That was fast."

Ferb stared at the now nearly complete vehicle in their backyard, simply raising an eyebrow in confusion as to why anyone would want to resurrect a machine as old as the one standing before him before noticing the changes made on the schematics. Patiently waiting for an explanation he waited. "Well," Phineas began, "I figured if you were having some girl trouble I could take you and a date on a trip to Paris. They do call it the City of Love after all." Ferb simply responded with a thumbs down. Before Phineas could ask another question, Ferb's wallet was out with pictures of him and a women Phineas had never seen before. She had blonde hair and was clearly of English descent. "Oh, what's her name?" Phineas was slightly disappointed when he realized that his plan was in the midst of backfiring.

"Emily," Ferb answered, clearly indicating that he was not going to say any more.

"Is she in England at the moment?" Again Ferb answered with a thumbs up. "Well then, are you interested in visiting her?" Another thumbs up. "Ok then let's..."

"Watcha' doin'?" Isabella's voice interrupted Phineas midsentence. Phineas again lost himself in her eyes but was luckily able to pull himself back before the blush on his face became too noticeable. "Am I interrupting something?"

"No," Phineas answered a little faster than normal, shaking his head to get rid of the last of the day dream state. "Ferb and I were just talking about taking a trip to Europe to I can drop him off to visit his girlfriend, Emma or Emily or whatever her name is."

"Awe that's so cute, Ferb. Can I come with you guys? It's been so long since I've been to Europe, and I really would love to see the fashions and the sites."

"Yea, sure, we have plenty of room," Phineas complied while pulling a remote out of his pocket. Pushing the sole, red button on its center opened the glass top of the plane as stairs unfolded from outside the cockpit descending to the feet of the group. "We've just gotta put this motor in and we'll be ready to go." With that Phineas got to work opening up the compartment at the nose of the plane and screwing the motor in at the correct place and connecting tubes and hoses to their proper locations. After about five minutes of work the boys were done and they began to enter. Phineas took the driver's seat seeing as this model only had one steering mechanism, Ferb oddly enough took the back by himself, leaving Isabella to sit at Phineas's side.

Pushing a button below the steering wheel, Phineas made the boosters aim at the ground, giving them lift. Phineas pulled back on a lever when they become level with the top of the tree, bringing the wheels in and turning the engine back to its proper position. Quickly, Phineas grabbed the controls and pulled back, causing the plane to thrust upward into the air. Everything rushed by the cockpit so fast that all non-airborne objects appeared to be nothing but a blur and it was even difficult to tell what objects in the sky were. Especially because he could've sworn he saw what appeared to be Perry wearing a fedora and driving a hovercraft in the shape of a platypus go by as they passed downtown Danville. Once they were at a sufficient altitude that they would not have to deal with air traffic, Phineas turned the plane due west. "Next stop England!" Phineas cheerfully exclaimed as the coastline came quickly into view.

The flight over the Atlantic was an exciting one. When no ships were on the radar, Phineas would take the Sun-Beater down to the surface level and allow the bottom of the plane to graze the surface of the water, leaving a large wake as it when. A perfectly sunny day assured that the seas were calm and the light of the early morning sun danced playfully off the tops of small waves, casting a pattern on the plane's bottom. Activating autopilot, Phineas took a look back at Ferb, who, staying true to character, hadn't said a word at all the entire trip. He was staring at a picture in his wallet. Knowing that Ferb was probably just excited to see this Emily girl Phineas decided it would be best to just leave him be. He looked over at Isabella. For the first time since he had first seen her this year, Isabella was wearing nonathletic clothes. She was actually wearing something quite similar to what she wore when they were in sixth grade. The dress was almost exactly the same, the only difference being that it was more form fitting, revealing her curvature. In place of the white tee-shirt was a white camisole that showed her breasts without being slutty, covering the vast majority of them. She still dawned the pink bow that he had given her all those years ago. Phineas smiled to himself when he thought about how simple a gift it had been, he was replacing one that had been destroyed by Pinky, but how much it meant to her. How much more it meant to him to see her wear it.

"Watcha' thinking?" Isabella broke the silence, her gaze focused on the deep blue water outside the window.

"What do you mean?" He knew that she could tell that something was on his mind. He wasn't stupid enough to think that she didn't know him well enough to tell these sorts of things, but it surprised him nonetheless.

"Well you're being quiet and the Phineas Flynn I know and love would usually be laughing about how much fun he's having flying to England on a plane he built himself just this morning." Her usual smile grew when she said _love_ and she kind of hoped Phineas hadn't noticed.

"Oh, I um, well I I I was looking out the open sea. I really didn't take the time to enjoy the scenery the last time around."

"Yea, I know what you mean, I was too young and distracted by someone's obliviousness to take notice of what was going on around me, except for in Paris. Hey! I think I see land!"Sure enough the cliffs of the Emerald Isle were fast approaching from the east. What started as a speck on the horizon quickly expanded into the coast of Ireland. Phineas began to slow the plane, knowing that they would be above England in less than five minutes if he didn't.

"So Ferb, where exactly should I stop if you're to see the Emily chick?" Ferb pulled leaned over the gap between Phineas and Isabella's seats and typed "51° 30′ 26″ N, 0° 7′ 39″ W" into the autopilot. "You sure?" Ferb nodded, "Okay, next stop London!" When the group reached the city, Phineas brought the plane to a standstill. "Ferb," he said, "I need you to pull the cord under your seat." Ferb reached down and pulled and a clicking noise was heard. The seat began to change shape, wrapping around his shoulders and forming into what looked like a backpack. "There's nowhere for this baby to land in London, so you're going to have to land yourself down there. The roof will open and I'll need you to jump out of the plane. After that pull the chord again and you'll land safely I guarantee it."

Just as Phineas had said, the glass surrounding the cockpit folded back. Ferb jumped out immediately pulling the cord as he was told causing two rocket boosters to shoot out toward the ground. Slowly Ferb fell down to Earth in full control of the speed of his fall. Phineas smiled down at his brother who gave him a thumbs up upon landing. Seeing that all was safe, Phineas close the cockpit and began to turn the plane south, towards the English Channel. Isabella cocked her head slightly to the side, "You're just dropping him off?" she asked both confused and slightly angered. She wouldn't have agreed to taking the trip with them if she had know it was just going to be dropping Ferb off as if he were a child again.

"Of course. I figured if he is going to want some alone time with his girlfriend, I might as well let them have it. Besides, I had originally intended on going to Paris to take a look around. Maybe even answer a few questions about something that's been on my mind."

Less than ten minutes later, Phineas was once again slowing down the plane, this time pushing a button with the image of a boat. Where the wheels should have come out with the activation of the landing gear, small rocket flames erupted instead, much like during Ferb's descent. A floatation device burst out around the body of the plane as the lightly made contact with the water. Slowly making his way to a dock, Phineas began to moor the boat. "Welcome," he said while offering his hand to Isabella, "to Paris." He finished in a French accent.

Isabella was laughing hard enough to hide the blush that covered her face from Phineas offering his hand to her in the City of Love. "Thank you. I think I would avoid using that accent if I were you though, it may get you beat up."

"Ha! They'd have to catch me first and seeing as I won those gold medals yesterday..." He started rubbing his knuckles to his puffed out chest as he feigned cockiness.

"I know it isn't likely. Just don't let it get to your head," Isabella teased. Phineas proceeded to grab her hand and help her on the dock after which the two ascended the stairs leading to ground level.

The city was huge, much bigger than he remember Paris being. No, it wasn't that Paris was bigger than he remembered it was that last time he had a specific goal in mind. Now he was there to see the sights and he hadn't a clue where to start. Isabella, however, seemed to have something in mind as she guided them to the center of the city. She stopped them at a large palace like building. "So, do you know what this place is?" Isabella inquired.

"Um," Phineas only knew of one castle within the city, "is it the Bastille?"

"No, it's the Louvre." Isabella giggled at Phineas lack of French knowledge. "I thought you were supposed to be the smartest guy in our class."

"Hey, it's only French history, not like anything important has happened here since we saved them during World War II." Isabella laughed at this one, especially cause that was the exact response she had expected. Over the years, Phineas had become very patriotic and had very little interest in learning about other countries' cultures.

"Well, I think while we're here we might as well take a tour of the sights don't you think?" With that Isabella grabbed Phineas's hand and led him into the museum.

Two hours later they emerged from the building. Sure some of the art was interesting, even if Phineas had no idea why the French had one of da Vinci's, the _Mona Lisa_, when that painting probably should've been in Italy, where the painter was from, but it just wasn't his style. Getting his eyes adjusted to the light, he looked to the town to find what to do next. Then something caught his eye, the Eiffel Tower. Phineas grabbed Isabella's hand and began to run towards their destination. Little did he know that the young woman behind him was hopelessly blushing, her eyes fixed in a star struck gaze. Many older couples and groups held back their jeers when they saw what they thought was a young couple run by them, willing to forgive and forget in the name of young love. Many of them saying things like "ah, amour juvénile." Phineas took no notice to their words. Isabella just daydreamed of her hopes that the natives' words were true.

Phineas finally stopped upon arriving at the Tower. Quickly they ascended to the top balcony and glanced out over the Parisian skyline . The sun danced of the river flowing through the city, illuminating the bustling traffic of people below. "Oh Phineas, isn't this romantic?" Isabella asked before realizing what she had said. She covered her mouth in embarrassment, hoping that he hadn't hear. After all, even if Paris was the City of Love, it had only served as the city that crushed her hopes. Of course she couldn't have been caught further off guard than when she heard his response.

"It sure is, isn't it?" Phineas pulled her a little closer with that holding her in front of him. Holding her in his arms. Isabella nearly fainted from happiness. Luckily for her, she didn't realize that he was merely moving her out of the way of the person who was about to push her aside to take a picture of Paris. "Wow look at the time," Phineas gasped, somewhat disappointedly, upon noticing his watch. "We need to leave to pick up Ferb!"

Isabella sighed. She knew this moment was too good to be true, and if it were true then too good to last. She and Phineas slowly made their way to the boat, undid its mooring and took off for London. Luckily for Isabella, Phineas made two stops on the way, both at street vendors, and bought Isabella a rose and a beret. Once in the air they arrived at London in no time at all, picked up Ferb, who had planned out everything so that he and a blond woman, they assumed she was Emily, were to be picked up from atop the London Eye. After an hour of flying they passed over the Atlantic Ocean, and were within sight of Danville.

The sun kissed the horizon when they landed. Ferb and Emily went into the house so that Ferb could introduce his father and girlfriend, leaving Phineas and Isabella alone. Phineas was about to say something to Isabella, finally understanding the feelings he had for her through their time in Paris, when a familiar blue platypus landed on his head as it fell out of the tree. "Oh, there you are Perry!"

Isabella gave Phineas a confused glance. "Does he always find you in such weird ways?"

"Yes, or whenever we hang out alone he does. Remember when Ferb and I ran that cruise and he appeared on a platypus sized life preserver? We didn't even bring any that were that small."

"I thought you called them fun-preservers," Isabella teased. "And I should get going before this flower begins to wilt, since the day is over and all."

"Nobody said it had to be over."

"What do you mean?"

"Just get that thing in a vase and come back," Phineas gestured her out of the yard as he talked. "Actually, you might want to bring a change of clothes."

"Oh, and why's that?"

"Let's just say I know what we're gonna do tonight." With that, Phineas closed the gate behind Isabella and ran up to his room to grab a nicer shirt, taking Perry upstairs with him.

Five minutes later Phineas had put on a fancy orange golf shirt and tan khaki pants. He planned to take Isabella to the beach before sunset, he was finally going to take advantage of owning a flying car, especially with some of the tweaks he had made that morning while working on the Sun-Beater. After that he would take Isabella to the new badger theme restaurant downtown. He figured it was the perfect end to their day together. And hopefully the ideal turnout to his Big Idea. Originally, he planned on just getting Isabella to notice him but something changed in Paris. A trip with the purpose of discovering the reason behind his strange behavior around Isabella enlightened him so much more. Romance had never exactly been Phineas's thing but Paris showed him the way. No, it wasn't the fact that he was in the City of Love. Alone time with Isabella did. It made him realize why he wanted to see her smile. Explained what that jittering was.

Isabella walked through the gate seeing Phineas look up at the sky. "Hey, you might want to head to the car, I've got a surprise for you." Phineas beamed at his words. Whatever was going through the young man's head had him overly excited. He walked her to his car only to realize that something had change.

"Phineas," she began, "when did you get a Thunderbird?" What used to be the Flying Car of the Future, Today was now shaped like a Seventies Ford Thunderbird.

"It's not. I just changed the shape of the frame before starting work on the plane. Then I change the paint from dirt brown to sea foam green." Pride filled Phineas voice. "Why is something wrong with it? I based it off an old Fifties Fender Stratocaster I saw in a music store a few weeks back."

"NO! I just didn't expect such a rapid change."

Phineas opened the passenger side door for Isabella before getting in himself. Reversing out of the drive way and making a left turn towards the beach. At the end of Maple Drive, Phineas turned the top of the gear shift and Isabella noticed that they were beginning to ascend. She looked out the window and couldn't find any wings. Phineas hadn't just made changes to his car, he totally upgraded it. Quickly they raced to the beach cutting over traffic. Once they were at the beach, Phineas made a turn until Isabella couldn't recognize their surroundings. Finally they descended facing the sunset.

The sun dyed a streak of water bright orange as it fell to greet the ocean. The waves' turned perfectly in rhythm under a darkening red and purple sky. A couple sat and enjoyed the scenery together, taking in the sounds of the seabirds and mighty crashing of the waves. The girl wore a pink dress. Not like a ball gown dress put one that showed that she intended on looking nice. Her head rested in the nook between the young man's neck, chest and shoulder. Isabella was in bliss. The oblivious, imaginative Phineas Flynn had finally figured out her feelings for him. She couldn't be any happier. Sure, he hadn't asked her out or anything. Heck, he might not even like her back. But knowing that he cared enough to show her a good time meant more than anyone could ever have imagined. The last beams of light fought to stay dominate over the ever darkening sky, but like a fire deprived of oxygen, they eventually faded out. When the last trace of light fled from the sky, Phineas helped Isabella to her feet and they walked to his car.

Even though their time at the beach had been almost completely silent, Phineas knew his plan succeeded. Sure he was no Ferb, but even Phineas knew that sometimes silence could say more than words ever could. Phineas flew them back to the main road before landing, there was no way that he would get away with flying his car downtown during the day let alone at night. He noticed Isabella's growing anticipation as he passed the suburbs for the city. He could tell that he was definitely catching her off guard. _Perfect. I don't think I've been able to surprise her since building the rollercoaster so many years ago._ The pulled up to _Chez Badger _causing Isabella's jaw to drop. Sure it was a mere knockoff of his restaurant, but it was also the fanciest place in town, since badger themed restaurants became retro anyway.

Phineas escorted Isabella to the host telling them he had reservations under Flynn. They were taken to their table and served almost immediately. Phineas ordered the New York strip and Isabella ordered the tilapia. The food arrived quickly and the two enjoyed a dinner talking about everything and nothing all at the same time.

They arrived home a little before midnight. Phineas walked Isabella to her door hand in hand. "Well, I hope you had fun today," his cheeks burned a little as he said the words.

"I did, I just wish it didn't have to end." Isabella meant every last word. Of course Phineas sealed the meaning in these words as he pulled her in and gave her a light peck on the lips. Her face lit up like a Christmas light. It seemed to last forever even though it was just under five seconds.

"I'll see you tomorrow?" Phineas asked pulling away.

"Yes, yes you will." Sure he hadn't asked her out in the way she had always dreamed as a child but something about his way seemed so much more right. Maybe it was because times change that she was happier with this outcome than her childhood fantasy.

**A/N: Over a thousand hits. AWESOME! This chapter was really long but part of it is because I want to move on to the next part of the story. The next chapter will bring Linda and Candace into the story and be the last chapter. Answer the poll that will appear on my profile to let me know what season will be focused on next. This one will be spring since it's late May in the story. Review are appreciated thanks for your time.**


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

A silent hand shook Phineas Flynn awake earlier that morning, The sun shown off his gold medals making it almost impossible to look at Ferb. The sun hadn't passed the horizon and Ferb was already waking him up. The clock read six o'clock. Yet another night with minimal sleep. "Ferb," Phineas croaked. "Why are you waking me up so late?" Ferb's answered by pointing to the calendar. "Mom home" was written on a Tuesday, that Tuesday. "So we're throwing a party right?" Ferb gave his signature thumbs up. "You thinking what I'm thinking?" Ferb reached in the drawer of their nightstand and pulled out some schematics and a notebook. "Yes, yes you are!"

After getting dressed, sneaking past the guest room, currently occupied by a sleeping Emily, and avoiding waking up Candace and Lawrence, the Ferb-tatistic stepbrothers were on their way to the local hardware store. Phineas elected to drive, wanting to give the Flying Car of the Future, Today 2.0 a chance to show what it could handle. Sure it had flown nicely the night before but now it was time to test the payload. The flight to the store was short, especially because the authorities hadn't been introduced to Phineas's car's upgrades, making parking easy. Phineas took a push trolley over to the wood section while Ferb went to look for screws and a few new power tools. It may not have been seven o'clock in the morning, but they would need to do this fast.

Phineas started by picking up two by fours and plywood to build the foundation of what would be a stage for the evening's festivities. Once satisfied with that he sought out an employee so that he could order the maple wood that be the hardwood flooring for the finished product. Not only would this stage hold up, it would look good too. A ladder was wheeled over so that Phineas and a few workers could work together on bringing down the heavy boxes. Phineas gave his trolley a good looking over before moving on to the metals isle to gather what would become the foundation of the stage and where the lights of the stage would go. His experience made the process go smoothly and he was finished gathering supplies in no time, now he just needed the work force to get this done as quickly as possible. Phineas took out his phone and sent a mass text message to a few of his old friends, including Balijeet and Buford. It had been awhile since he had talked to either of them and he really wanted to make normal again. He then looked through his contacts until he found Fabulous, Bobbi Fabulous. He sent him a text message with instructions to gather the band to meet at the Flynn-Fletcher house at eleven o'clock without their instruments.

While Phineas gathered the larger supplies, Ferb collected the assorted nuts, bolts, nails, and screws they needed. After gathering several boxes worth he grabbed a cart that sat empty in the middle of the isle and walked towards the power tools. Unfortunately for Ferb, this required a walk all the way across the store. At the end of his journey Ferb had grown quite sick of the orange painted metal that made up the shelves. It mocked his fatigue caused by an early morning. Scanning the shelves, Ferb quickly found what he needed, some Craftsman power screwdrivers, an electric hammer, circular saw, and some new drill heads. Not wanting to spend any more time in the store than he had to, Ferb power walked to the cashier, meeting Phineas there. The cashier gasped at the amount of supplies the young men were buying, her mouth gaping open and speechless.

"You're new here, aren't you?" Phineas inquired. The young girl just nodded, her slight afro bobbing up and down with her head. "Well then, I'm Phineas and this is Ferb, you'll get to know us real well by the end of summer. Trust me."

The two quickly paid and tethered their larger purchases to the bottom of the car as it idled a few feet off the ground. The smaller purchased were thrown in the trunk and the two flew off. While the flight home wasn't quite as fast as Phineas would have liked, they made terrific time, arriving home by seven thirty. With the push of a button, the supplies released and the two began building. It hadn't been long before they heard the typical "Watcha doin'?" Only this time the voice was deeper, like a man was trying to imitate Isabella.

"Hey Buford, long time no see!" Phineas was ecstatic, dropping his tools to greet the bully with a quick man hug.

"Like a year and a half if I rememba right." Buford's words didn't carry the slightest bit of malice, it was all Phineas could have asked for. "So what are we building today?"

"A stage for Love Handel! Only this time when we're done it's gonna be donated to Danville Park so that local bands can play shows on weekends."

"Sounds good to me."

Ferb walked up to Buford and handed him a hammer, with a strength like his, they could let Buford handle constructing the beams for the lights. Within in a half hour of working the group had finished most of the foundation for the stage and Buford was roughly half way done the beams. At this rate they would be finished by eight thirty. Then he would be able to call on Isabella and the former Fireside Girls for help on some of the more complicated aspects. Like the actual planning of the party. Phineas ran inside to grab a glass of water, over the construction Ferb and Buford heard him ask Lawrence, "Hey, where's Perry?" Buford laughed at how little his friend had changed, the business of a project allowing him to finally let loose. Or maybe he didn't change. Maybe things were returning to the olden days. Unfortunately, Buford was the only one who knew that they wouldn't totally return to normal for at least a little while. He alone knew Balijeet was back in Mumbai, tending to his sick grandmother.

Nine o'clock arrived and Phineas received a text from Candace. It read, _Mom and I should be home around three. Grandma Betty Jo sends her love_. Linda and Candace spent the week at the mountains for a mother-daughter get away. Linda had no clue that the boys would be home from college this early, both had told her that classes lasted another week. So, like most families would, the boys conspired with Lawrence to throw a surprise party. Phineas and Ferb were responsible for getting the actual set up finished while Lawrence took care of acquiring building permits for things such as the stage for the concert. Phineas locked his phone and gazed upon the now completed stage. The Love Handel insignia from Swampy's drum set was centered on the front of the stage so that it could be seen by those in the front row and was adorned by the dark purple, velvet curtains that hung behind the band.

Isabella's eyes fluttered as the day light had finally built up enough power to shine through her closed curtains, yet she felt like she could use more sleep. Although Phineas had taken her home around midnight, the next few hours were spent on the internet or on the phone, talking like a school girl to her friends about her day. Gretchen was excited for Isabella, after all, she did always turn to Gretchen when letting her worries about Phineas's obliviousness pour. The other Fireside Girls squealed, just as they had when Phineas asked Isabella to join him on the romantic cruise, as Isabella unveiled all the details of her Parisian excursion. Adyson, however, expressed her shock. Even though everyone labeled Phineas the oblivious one in their relationship, Isabella missed almost as many hints as he had. The conversations kept Isabella up until the early hours of the morning, so she only felt worse when her clock read nine o'clock. She only slept for five hours.

It took about half of an hour, but Isabella had finally gotten dressed and walked her way over to the Flynn-Fletcher house. Her eyelids and gravity felt at war with one another, luckily her will kept her eyelids on the winning side. "Watcha' doin'?" she managed to say as she yawned. Phineas looked down from his scaffold which was currently being held up by Buford and Ferb via pulley system.

"Hey Isabella! I'm putting up lights for the concert me, Ferb, and Dad are throwing for our mom. It's sort of a welcome home party for her and Candace, and me and Ferb as well, I guess." Phineas yelled down enthusiastically. "What are you doing?"

"Fighting off sleep." Isabella once again spoke while yawning, making it slightly difficult to understand her.

Phineas finished putting in the final screws before giving Ferb the signal to plug in the lights. Seeing that all lights worked, Phineas whistled to be lowered, much to the relief of his partners. Phineas pulled a small notebook out of his pocket and made a checkmark in the box next to the word "stage". The only things left on the list were gather supplies, visit caterer's, talk to band, and invite guest. Phineas assigned the last, and possibly biggest, task to Buford and Ferb to help speed things up. Looking at his watch, Phineas realized that they only had an hour and a half before he had to meet with Love Handel. "Isabella, do you still have the numbers of your former troop members?"

Being addressed by Phineas helped wake Isabella up. She snapped to attention pulled out her phone. "I have most of them. Actually I have all of them but Ginger's, but I lost touch with her after she left for India a few months ago for reasons unknown. Why do you ask?"

Phineas smiled at this, all was going according to plan. "We have some shopping to do."

"Okay!" Isabella woke up completely. "I'll call them and tell them where to go. . . Where do we want them to go?"

"Well you and I are going to the Superduper Mega Superstore for snacks and then the caterer's. I'll need someone to get fliers made to advertise the concert, someone to get the balloons and another for things like party favors. I don't feel like being in charge of the decorations so can you ask somebody to take care of that too?"

Isabella got to work texting Gretchen, Adyson, Katie, and Holly assigning each of them an individual goal. She couldn't exactly call them yet, nobody but she and the Flynn-Fletcher boys got up this early. She was shocked to see Buford there as early as he had been. Phineas then proceeded to walk Isabella to his car and the two drove towards their destination.

"Why aren't you flying Phineas? Wouldn't that get everything finished so much faster?"

"Yea, but I already flew once today and I'm not sure if flying this late in the day is taking too big of a risk, after all it is sunny." Phineas wasn't lying, there wasn't a cloud in the sky, and wouldn't be for a few days according to Isabella's phone.

They arrived at the Superduper Mega Superstore and Phineas felt overwhelmed by its sheer size at 52,637,000 square acres, it owned the title Largest Store In Danville, for over fifteen years. He and Isabella grabbed a cart and headed to the chip aisle. They were five feet into the aisle when Phineas stopped to pick up an industrial box of Pringles. Putting the box down a sinister grin formed on Phineas Flynn's lips. With her back turned to him, Isabella was unprepared for what happened next. Phineas bent down and picked up Isabella, placing her inside the gigantic cart. He then when behind it and started running. Isabella had no clue what was happening, she was unable to utter a scream of shock before they were halfway down the aisle. Phineas then proceeded to propel the cart forward like a scooter. He noticed the brands and flavors he wanted appearing on his right and he shoveled them in behind Isabella. After about fifteen seconds they were done with the aisle, Phineas laughing hysterically alongside Isabella. "So," he managed to get out over his laughter, "have you ever gone shopping like that before?"

"No, no I haven't. That is definitely the most interesting way to go shopping."

"Yes, yes it is!"

Phineas then proceeded to turn around, focusing on the side that he had missed the time before. He looked at Isabella and nodded and began the second round. They sped down the aisle, only this time Isabella grabbed the appropriate chips as they came while Phineas put full effort into going as fast as possible. They finished in mere seconds. Phineas stopped the cart and put out his hand to help Isabella out, causing her to giggle in embarrassment. They then proceeded to buy soda syrup for the party at hand, a wet bar that Phineas and Ferb had constructed for their graduation would be providing the carbonated water. After about half an hour's worth of shopping the two finally finished getting what they needed and headed to the car.

Phineas and Isabella arrived at Downtown Danville to check out the caterer. They parked outside the D.E.I. building. The two began walking down the street, they had a block to go before getting to their destination when the sound of shattering glass caught Phineas's attention. "Curse you Perry the Platypus!" followed soon after. Recognizing the name, Phineas looked up to see a man leaning out of his window waving a fist at the empty sky. Phineas looked at Isabella and smiled shaking the odd situation from his mind, ignorant to the hang glider shaped shadow that shaded the couple.

Phineas and Isabella made it back to the Flynn-Fletcher house with ten minutes to spare before Love Handel was supposed to arrive. They carried their purchases inside with Lawrence and Ferb's help, and Isabella left soon after. She was going to meet the Fireside Girls and plan out how to set everything for that evening. Love Handel arrived at exactly eleven in a stretch Hummer limousine, Bobbi wearing his typical black sweater and white jeans while Dan and Swampy wore basic jean shorts and tee-shirts. Phineas took them in the house and explained what they had planned for the evening. When they were finished discussing the time and debating what songs would make the ideal set, Phineas took the group into the garage.

"Okay," Phineas started, "at around quarter of seven, I'll have you guys report here. There will be fitting rooms set up with your clothes inside, which you guys can bring later. Your make up will be done in there by our very own Fireside Girls. When all that's finished, I want you to flip this switch." Phineas turned the light switch next to the door leading from the house to the garage. The garage door lifted revealing a chasm forming in the drive way. When the gap in the drive way reached a certain size, the sound of hydraulics filled the air was the stage began to rise covered by a fog that was keeping it hidden to any onlookers in the street. A clicking sound signaled that the stage had locked into place and a set of stairs unfolded to allow the band access to the platform.

"This," Danny gasped, "is definitely the most epic entrance we've made since we played on the Berlin Wall back in the eighties!"

Three o'clock rolled around and Maple Drive looked like a ghost town. Linda and Candace slowly worked their way towards the driveway in Linda's new, grey Honda Civic. Linda couldn't help but feel that something was up. Sure it was a weekday, but there was no way that her street could ever be this quite. Even if the boys weren't back from school yet something usually happened on Maple Drive. Even that crazy guy who only occasionally occupied the house two doors down had something odd going on in his front lawn, even when he wasn't home. Candace fiddled with her phone while looking at the back yard thankful that her mother was looking across the street as Ferb ran out and activated a hologram cloaking device in the yard to hide what had been set up there. Linda pulled into the driveway, greeted by Ferb standing on the path to the door, Lawrence coming out behind him as she closed the door.

"Ferb!" Linda yelled in excitement, running up to the young man and giving him a hug. "What are you doing back so early? I thought you had another week left of class."

Ferb hugged her back without saying a word. She then proceeded to hug her husband giving him a quick kiss on the cheek. Linda and Candace walked into the house while the men grabbed their bags. They looked around, half expecting to see Phineas waiting at the foot of the stairs. He wasn't. Instead a young woman, about Ferb's age, wearing a light yellow shirt and brown, pleated miniskirt. "Hello," she said in a thick British accent, "I'm Emily Kinney, Ferb's girlfriend."

A look of realization crossed Linda's face as she put the pieces together in her head. "It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Mrs. Flynn-Fletcher, Ferb's step-mother."

Ferb and Lawrence came in behind Candace and proceeded to take the bags up to their owners' rooms. In Candace room, static filled Ferb's left ear as Phineas gave him the okay for allowing the family into the backyard. Meeting his father in the hallway, Ferb gave Lawrence a thumbs up and the two proceeded to usher the women outside. At first nothing looked spectacular about the yard until Phineas appeared out of thin air.

"Phineas!" Linda screamed as she ran up to her son and hugged him. "You said you had another week of track left. What happened?"

"Well, I lied," he said smiling. "It was more like two days. And I won the championship in the one hundred and two hundred. Enough about me though, I think you'll be more surprised by this!" Phineas stepped on a rock which disappeared into the ground and lifted the cloaking device's effects. Isabella was the first to appear, standing next to Phineas, followed by a banner that read "Welcome Home Mom!", and then everyone else appeared at once. The entire neighborhood was in the Flynn-Fletcher yard, which in reality was a pretty common occurrence. Linda noticed that rides stood at random places in the neighborhood, and a few vending booths as well.

At seven fifteen the crowd was kicked off of the front lawn of the Flynn-Fletcher house as the driveway began to separate. The Fireside Girls came out through the front door and set up a velvet rope perimeter to keep everyone a safe distance away from the risings stage. Buford manned the ropes to keep people from rushing like a herd of wildebeests at his pride and joy as the fog slowly poured over stopping just beyond his feet. Up above, Phineas put a blimp on autopilot so that it's camera had the perfect aerial footage. A digital display the read "Love Handel" flashed around the outside of the blimp. With all preparations made, Phineas dove towards the ground, activating his parachute to gracefully glide to the stage. With the fog hiding his figured, he spoke into the mic. "Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, tonight's headliners, Love Handel!" The LH insignia in the middle of the stage lowered Phineas below the stage as the fog thinned, revealing three silhouettes, two holding guitar shaped objects and the other behind what appeared to be drums. A guitar rift began as the fog slowly gave way enough to reveal Danny's face. The bass and drums followed and the concert was off.

It was twelve thirty when the band began their final song, _Snuck Your Way into My Heart_. Phineas who had been standing next to Isabella the entire concert offered out his hand to her. She accepted and Phineas pulled her in close, wrapping his arms around her waist. Various other couples took notice and did the same things and swayed to the rhythm of the song. Isabella and Phineas locked eyes the entire time, a blush running across both of their cheeks. As the song drew to a close, Phineas pulled Isabella into a tight hug, which they reluctantly broke when the music stopped. Chanting erupted for an encore, which prompted the band to turn around from their procession down the stairs.

Danny stepped on a pedal he hadn't used all night when he got to the microphone. Fountains of flames burst from the front of the stage, behind the center one a small rectangular shape took form., much to the surprise of the band.

"Chatter."

Phineas ran up on stage and grabbed the small object. "Oh, there you are Perry." He chuckled embarrassingly and he proceeded to walk off stage and spend the rest of his night with Isabella.

**A/N: sorry for the delay in updating, this chapter took awhile to get going. I'm satisfied with it and I feel that I could end it on this note without worry. I'll probably start the sequel soon. Reviews are appreciated but not expected. Hope you enjoyed this. And if anyone wants a few more chapters before moving on to the next story, please let me know.**


	9. Chapter 9

**By request, I will postpone the sequel to Times Change in favor of extending the first part an extra chapter or two so without further a due...**

Chapter Nine

The sun was well over the horizon on the late spring morning, yet everyone on Maple Drive and a considerable portion of Danville was asleep, the main exception being kids in school. All adults who could get off enjoyed their well deserved sleep in after the neighborhood party thrown by Phineas Flynn. Of course a young man had decided that today was a good day to begin his preseason training regimen. Sweat poured down Phineas Flynn's brow and chest, his shirt now served no purpose other than being picked up from time to time as a towel for his forehead. Phineas faced the driveway, suspended in midair by a pull up bar he had installed before starting. _12. . . 13. . . 14. . .15, Finished! _He thought to himself, completing his last set of pull up for the day. Phineas released his left hand's grip and pushed a button on the side of bar. It began to retract, pulling itself to the rafters to stay out of the way. Phineas laughed, partially from exhaustion and partially because it never ceased to amaze him how much more convenient life was with his inventing skills.

Phineas pulled his iPhone out of his pocket to change the song from hard rock, he was listening to AC/DC, to techno when he realized the time. It was almost nine o'clock and that meant it was time to feed Perry. Putting away the assorted dumbbells he had used, he made his way to his and Ferb's room. He found Perry curled up but awake on his platypus bed. Phineas bent down and picked up the monotreme, earning a purr like chatter. They walked down to the kitchen, Phineas placed Perry on the counter while he grabbed a can of platypus food. "I don't know how you eat this stuff boy. I mean it has bugs in it!" Perry just gave his owner a confused look, and Phineas began pouring the contents of the can into Perry's bowl. They came out in single, disgusting _plop_ which Perry greeted with a hungering stare. Phineas placed the bowl and platypus on the ground and let him eat.

Phineas began to work his way back into the garage, grabbing a jump rope. Inside the garage, Phineas took his place facing the sun, allowing the light breeze that flowed into the space to cool him down. He started running in place, swinging the jump rope as he went, as the rope picked up speed so did his running. After five minutes he switched the crisscross jumps. Phineas closed his eyes and began to picture his next indoor season in his mind. The lining up at the starting line before the gun fired, the excitement of a hard preseason's work finally having the opportunity to show. His heart pounded, he knew this would never be for nothing. His meditative state let him slip away from reality, keeping his brain from being able to process his muscle fatigue. He stayed in this little world of his until he felt another presence outside his garage. He stopped what he was doing, half expecting to see Perry sitting outside completely surprised to see a blond haired girl staring at him. She seemed confused as well.

"I always thought jump roping was for girls." She suggested. Her tone showed she meant it. "But then I saw Ferb do it before back at university, do you mind if I ask why you do it? I'd ask Ferb himself but he has the whole limit to the amount of words he says a day and I always make him reach it before I can ask him."

Phineas reached behind him and grabbed his back up shirt, the one that he hadn't used as a sweat towel and pulled it on. "Well," he began, "it works the fast twitch muscle fibers, for me it helps work on starts and the like. Ferb just likes to keep in good shape, he says that it helps him when he builds. I think he just does it cause being in shaped means looking good for the ladies in his mind." Realizing his mistake, Phineas hastily added, "Not that he is trying to impress other ladies at the moment."

Seeing Phineas falter and fumble over his words at the end, Emily couldn't help but laugh. "Actually, Ferb still likes to keep himself in shape so that he can stay eye candy for other girls. It's not that he like to keep his options open, he just likes to mess with me by nudging me every time a girl hits on him when I don't compliment his looks."

"And he has always fancied himself a ladies' man. It may not help much at Cambridge, but here in Danville that accent of his brings girls to him like moths to a flame." Phineas added. Emily laughed hard at this, especially cause she and Phineas both knew that Ferb hadn't dated anybody before Emily.

"Well, I'd best be off. I'm hopefully going to be able to surprise Ferb with a bit of breakfast in bed, seeing as he fell asleep on the floor of the guest room last night when he saw how early you set the alarm." And with that she made her way to Ferb's car and drove off.

Phineas opened up the notes list on his phone and saw that he was finally finished with his work out and headed upstairs to get a shower. Turning up the stairs, he saw Perry sitting on the couch, watching soaps. "I'll never understand how you watch those things Perry. I mean how to you even turn on the TV to get them on?"

"Chatter." Perry responded with a glare towards his owner. Phineas had forgotten Perry rule one; never interrupt Perry during his shows. With that Phineas left Perry alone and continued ascending the stairs.

Once the steam cleared out of the bathroom, Phineas got dressed in his normal attire. It was approaching ten o'clock and her could hear the sounds of his parents and Candace beginning to wake. Walking past the guest room, Phineas saw that Ferb had just awoken as he stretched and rubbed the sleep away. On the stairs, Phineas squeezed to the left side and Emily walked up, a tray of orange juice, pancakes, milk, and bacon for two in her hands, a look of satisfaction on her face. Once she passed, Phineas jumped to the right, positioning himself on the railing and proceed to slide down. He looked to see Perry on edge while trying to find a comfortable position on the couch. From above, Phineas caught part of a conversation between two thick British accents.

"Does your platypus always smack strangers with his tail?" Emily's voice rang out.

"Perry only hits people who try to change his soaps. Last time I was home, he and my father spent an hour wrestling over the remote cause my dad wanted to see how the Eagles were doing. Does your fox always paw at peoples ears?" Ferb questioned.

"Oh that explains why he hit me." Emily gasped in an enlightened voice. "And Kiki only pawed you because you decided to use her as a pillow. And why would your dad want to watch a show about eagles?"

"No, not eagles, the Eagles. They're the local professional American football team and my dad has become hooked ever since we moved here."

Phineas made his way back into the garage and grabbed two fishing rods, a tackle box, and a small metal box. He placed everything he grabbed in the trunk of his car and made his way over to Isabella's. He noticed that Mrs. Garcia-Shapiro's car wasn't in the driveway. Phineas walked up and knocked on the door and was greeted by a half way ready Isabella. "Phineas? Watcha' doin' here?" She asked. Her hair was already straightened, and she was already dressed. However she had just eaten breakfast judging by the mixture of syrup and morning breath smell that came from her mouth as she spoke.

"Well if you're not too busy today, I was hoping that you'd wanna spend the day with me."

"Of course!" Isabella yelled to Phineas while running up the stairs. A few minutes later, Isabella appeared at the door ready to go.

"Wait, don't you need to take care of Pinky or something?"

"Nope, he disappears around this time every week."

With that the two walked back to the Flynn-Fletcher house and to Phineas's car. Taking Maple Drive towards the freeway, they began their trip toward the forest surrounding Danville. Isabella couldn't believe that she was getting to spend another day with Phineas, sure they were unofficially dating but it still felt like an unexpected heaven every time she was alone with him. After twenty five minutes of driving they arrived at Danville State Park, the largest park in Jefferson County. Parking by the entrance, Phineas grabbed the metal box out of the back of his car, pushed a red button on its side. A white light came out of a hole that opened up on the box, Phineas then turned the box so that the beam hit his rods and tackle box, which vanished upon being hit. "Nice," Phineas whispered to himself, "it works."

The two of them began to walk down one of the many forest paths, talking about their new friends at college, how life has been in the last few years, the party the night before, and things in general. After about two hours of talking and walking, they realized that they were so far in that they could no longer her the sounds of the road behind them. The sound a running creek told them that they had almost reached Lake Nose. The sun trickled down through the canopy of maple and oak trees. The chirping of song birds filled the air. The occasional hawk screeched from high above the forest floor, causing the squirrels around them to chatter in fear as they ran playfully about the trees. They listened closer, the sounds of children playing in the lake could be heard as they approached ear shot of the beach.

"Wow Phineas," Isabella breathed, "I never realized how roman. . . I mean peaceful it could be out here."

"I know, I love it out here. But what do you mean by Roman?"

Isabella played off the comment by Phineas. After all this time of her thinking that he was getting less oblivious, he was just as bad as when he was twelve. After a few more steps, Phineas grabbed Isabella's hand and ran off of the path. They ran for about fifty feet until they reached a particularly thick tree. Phineas placed his hand on the bark, causing an automated lift system to fall from the branches above. Isabella followed the lift with her eyes and noticed a large, luxurious, house like structure in the trees. It look like a more modern version of the tree house that they had built when they were stranded on that island so many years ago. Phineas stepped up onto the platform of the lift and offered his hand out to assist Isabella in getting on. When the lift sensed that two people were on, it quickly pulled them up.

It took mere seconds to get into the building and Isabella gasped at what she saw. Directly across the room stood two French doors, leading to a deck with an uninterrupted view of Lake Nose. The middle of the room was a large circular area that went below floor level. The sides were covered in cushions and in the middle was a small fire pit. Directly above that was a large sky light, the sides of which showed that it would be retracted when the fire was going. There was a small kitchen in the front left corner of the room with black granite counter tops. The walls of the room were adorned with various pictures, some were just decorative blue and brown designs that matched the walls of the room, others were pictures from various Big Ideas Phineas had done over the years. Three of the walls were a pale blue with a brown one surrounding the French doors. The wall to the left had a large LCD screen, angled so that it could be seen from the pit. Towards the back of the right wall a hallway began. The hallway held three doors, one held a bathroom and the other two held double beds and bureaus and a closet in each.

"Phineas, what is this place?" Isabella asked, amazed at what she was seeing.

"Remember when I showed you that cliff overlooking Danville?" Isabella nodded as Phineas spoke. "Well after awhile, a lot of over people started using that place to make out and stuff, totally killing my own private Idaho. So one day, while Ferb and I went to the lake with the family we decided to explore. That's when we found this really sturdy tree and decided we could build an impressive tree house on this thing."

"Oh! But why are there bedrooms with double beds?"

"Well, Ferb saw this as prime real estate so we decided to make it a place that could easily be used as a vacation home. There's even a rope swing that comes out of the room if you want to jump into the lake from it. We made it so that it's entirely eco-friendly. The plumbing is filtered water from the creek, totally clean as it comes in and totally clean when it leaves. The electronics are entirely solar powered."

"But that still doesn't explain the double beds."

"O yea, Ferb thought this would be a good place to bring girlfriends. I think he's bringing Emily here later."

"So why did you bring me here Phineas?" She was beginning to blush out of embarrassment. He brought her here and never even asked her out. They technically weren't dating yet. She was starting to get a little upset that he had the nerve to show her all this if he weren't going to ask her out.

"I thought it was obvious." Phineas chuckled. "I thought Paris the day we went to Paris was enough for that."

Isabella sighed and conceded defeat. She shouldn't have expected Phineas to be one to ask in a normal way. He never gave simple explanations, she just had to be satisfied with what she had gotten. "But how are we going to stay here? We didn't even pack!" Phineas just smiled and dug the metal box out of his pocket and threw it to her. "What does this do?"

"Push the green button on the side, it should be next to a slightly bigger read button. So long as you think about what you want it will transport it will appear in the white light and be right here. It's so much more convenient than packing. My drawers are all hooked up to this remotely and all I have to do is aim the light as the drawers her e to unpack. The down side, Perry learned how to mess with it so that he occasionally comes with the clothes. You should see the DVR in the common room, it's filled with episodes of _All My Children_. He figured out how to reconfigure it so that it takes him her when nobody lets him watch them at home."

Isabella went to the back room and began to bring some of her clothes over from home. When she was done she left the room to sit out on the deck and watch the water bounce off the lake. From inside she heard Phineas yell, "Oh come on Perry! You can't get mad at me that your bed's not in here! You're the one who came uninvited." She heard a chatter in response followed by the slamming of the bedroom door. The TV turned on behind her, but she didn't bother to turn around to see who it was. Phineas's voice did that for her. "How'd you find the remote? I hid that on top of a shelf and you walk on all fours!" Isabella laughed to herself. As much as Phineas loved his pet, she knew that he would never be able to control Perry's quirks.

Isabella turned her attention back to the lake. The door opened and closed behind her before a pair of arms wrapped themselves around her. Phineas sighed into Isabella's ear as he rest his chin on her shoulder. "I hope you didn't plan on watching TV anytime soon. He's got almost a day's worth of recordings to watch." He then turned Isabella around in his arms and pulled her into a loving kiss. "You know we've got a few hours before Ferb and Emily arrive want to go off and explore the lake? I've got a kayak just big enough for two waiting down by the water." He said pulling away.

"Yes, yes I would." And with that the two changed into their bathing suits, and thus started their romantic weekend, mostly alone. As the two took the lift down to the forest floor, a lone cloud passed the otherwise clear sky and Perry chatter peacefully to himself as he laid down on the cushion. Alone at last.

End Part One of Times Change Series

**A/N: The sequel will begin soon, I'm just not sure how soon. For those from Pa, I know that Jefferson County is closer to Pittsburg, making the Steelers the local football team. But I'm from Philly and I'm an Eagles fan 100% of the way. I only used Jefferson County because that is the county that Phineas and Ferb takes place in. I hope you enjoyed the story. Thanks to all who reviewed this story and to Phinabella fan13 for adding this to her favorites. Thanks to all who added to TC to their alerts as well. There's still time to vote on the poll so if you want to have a say in the setting next time around vote in the next two weeks.**


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